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USS Swiftfire (NCC-76125-A)
The USS Swiftfire (NCC-76125-A) was a Federation starship of the ''Akira'' class built in 2373, launched on stardate 50762.2. Previous vessels The USS Swiftfire-A is named after the [[USS Swiftfire (NCC-76125)|USS Swiftfire (NCC-76125)]], which was the first Federation vessel to bear the name. The previous vessel was destroyed during the Second Federation-Klingon War in 2372. The Swiftfire-A is however the third vessel to bear the name. The first vessel, which is where the name originates from, was a Earth Starfleet vessel. The Swiftfire served prior to the formation of the Federation and was destroyed during the Earth-Romulan War in 2160. History 2373 The Swiftfire-A was commissioned in 2373 and placed under the command of Captain Jonathan Masters. The ship completed its shakedown cruise as the Dominion War began. The ship was immediately sent to the frontlines to reinforce the Fifth Fleet in Sector 432 on the Cardassian Border. ( : "Deployment") This was not the Swiftfire-A's first mission. Months before the start of the war Captain Alexander Whiting went rogue with the entire crew of the and attacked the Klingons. The Swiftfire was launched to help hunt the Fury down. The mission ended in success with the Fury destroyed and the peace kept between the Klingons and the Federation, though the Swiftfire was heavily damaged. ( : "Vengeance") The Swiftfire first saw action with the Fifth fleet in defence of Sector 432. During that time the ship destroyed several Jem'Hadar vessels before retreating with the fleet to the Guyra system. ( : "The Front") 2374 The Swiftfire would be involved in three major battles during the first few months of 2374. The first was the Battle of Guyra were the ship was assigned to the defence of Guyra III. ( : "Over the Horizon") The second was the Raid on Sector 432. During the battle the Swiftfire played a crucial part in the success of the operation by deploying a strike force of Marines to bring down the shields of the Dominion docks before destroying them with tricobalt devices. ( : "Pressure Points") The third major battle the ship was involved in was Operation Return. The Swiftfire was part of the Fifth fleet element of the operation. ( : "Rode the 600") The Swiftfire was heavily damaged in an operation with Starfleet Taskforce 59, which saw the ship return to Earth for repairs. Following these repairs the ship was transferred from the Fifth fleet to Taskforce 59. ( : "Taskforce 59", "No Rest for the Wicked") On the journey from Earth to join the Taskforce near the Breen border the ship was caught in a temporal causality loop. The ship repeated the time period around six times, all ending with the destruction of the ship. The loop was finally broken when the cause of ship's destruction was found and stopped. ( : "Q, Time and Again") After the repairs at Sol the ship's shield generators were incorrectly aligned leaving a weak spot in the shield coverage. This was exploited by Captain Masters while he was undercover with a pirate group allowing him to quickly disable the Swiftfire without causing major damage to the vessel. ( : "A Rough Time") The Swiftfire again need major repairs after getting a pounding in a battle with the Dominion. The ship was stuck hiding in Cardassian space after its warp drive failed. The ship was forced to make a run about to friendly territory at Warp 4 and was only saved by the intervention of the and . The ship received repairs at Starbase 129. ( : "Change in Command") During the Liberation of Nthony C the Swiftfire was one of the three Starfleet vessels involved. ( : "For the Federation") The Swiftfire was modified to operate deep within the Badlands. The ship was equipped with metaphasic shields and external thruster housings. This made the ship far more manoeuvrable and able to deal with the adverse environment of the Badlands. ( : "The True") In the Badlands the ship was engaged by three Vendoth warships. During the battle with the ships it was heavily damaged and required extensive repairs at Deep Space 9. ( : "The True", "A Dreadful Operation") The ship joined the allied assault fleet that attack the Chin'toka system in the First Battle of Chin'toka. ( : "Into the Fire") 2375 2376 The Swiftfire returned to Earth for upgrades and was in system when the Vendoth attack on Earth began. During the battle the ship engaged numerous Vendoth warships and was present during the loss of Jupiter Station. The ship was boarded once and successfully repelled the attacking Ven. Marines from the ship were deployed to Spacedock to assist in its defence. The ship survived the battle. ( : "United We Stand") Design features Bridge The bridge design has many similarities with other vessels from the era. The bridge is designed to offer the maximum view of the main viewscreen, which dominates the front of the bridge, from any position on the bridge. It does this by having the centre and forward stations located slightly lower then the side and rear sections such that there are four levels. The highest is the rear and sides of the bridge. The Captain's chair is located at the centre of the bridge on the edge of this top level. The next level is located in the middle of the bridge and has the XO's and second officer's chairs, which are located slightly forward of the captain's chair in flanking positions. The third level is where the two most forward crew positions are, the helm and ops stations. These stations are directly in front of the captain's chair so they are two steps lower then the captain so not to obstruct the captain's view. The lowest level is the front of the bridge. The bridge can be accessed from twin turbolifts located at the back of the bridge. There are also several other doors on the bridge that can access the Captain's ready room, the observation lounge and other areas. Ready room The Captain's ready room is located in front of the bridge and can be accessed from a door at the front of the bridge. The ready room is basically the captain's personal office and as such it has a personal desk and workstation. The main feature of the ready room is a large window located in the center of the room that looks outs towards the bow of the ship. Given that a captain works long hours the ready room has a private bathroom as well as a bed so that the captain does not need to go far from the bridge for some rest. Observation lounge The observation lounge is located behind the bridge and can be accessed through doors at the rear of the bridge. The lounge is basically a briefing room for the senior officers. It allows the officers to converse in a less public arena then the bridge. The room is dominated by a large table with numerous chairs arrayed around it. Main engineering The Swiftfire-A uses a dual warp core system with a warp core located in each arm of the engineering hull. Individually the warp cores are smaller then what would be typically installed on a ship the size of an Akira. The ship is capable of operating with only one warp core operational but at a reduced performance. This means there are two main engineering rooms. This meant twice as many engineering staff had to be operating at any one time as compared to traditional single warp core starships. To facilitate easy access to either warp core the engineering rooms had their own transporter system to move personnel quickly from one room to the other. Tactical systems The ship is armed with six Type-X phaser arrays. The ship has fifteen torpedo launchers giving it a torpedo armament that is not easily matched. The torpedoes are split between the saucer section and the rear weapons pod. The weapons' pod has eight torpedo launchers, a bank of four facing forward and two banks of two launchers facing aft. The other seven launchers are located on the saucer section. One is located below the deflector dish, two are located forward of the deflector dish and finally there are two launchers located facing port and two facing starboard along the edge of the saucer section. The ship was equipped with both photon torpedoes and the more powerful quantum torpedoes. The ship also carried tricobalt devices, though they would only be loaded in the launchers if specifically ordered. Rear weapons pod The rear weapons pod was located at the rear of the vessel, between the twin engineering hull. It contained over half of the ship's torpedo launchers. The pod also had a control room that could be used to fire the torpedo launchers from, which other then the bridge or main engineering this was the only area on the ship where someone could operate the launchers from. This room was often manned in case of emergencies. ( : "Q, Time and Again") Through-deck shuttlebay The signature feature of the Akira-class is its through-deck shuttlebay. There are five entrance/exit doors to the shuttlebay. Three at the bow on the leading edge of the saucer and two at the rear of the saucer section located between the dual engineering hull. Since the bay stretched through the ship craft would enter or exit from either the front of rear of the saucer. This gives the ship a large shuttlebay. The bay is capable of holding dozens of shuttlecraft. It can even store runabout and small scout vessels such as the and the . The large bay can also accommodate several squadrons of fighter craft. Pilot dispersal Pilot dispersal or "Pilot Town" is a room that is directly connected to the shuttlebay. The room houses the alert pilots. At all times a number of pilots and their crafts are ready to be launch at a moments notice and are referred to as been on "alert". While on alert the pilots have to be either in the shuttlebay or in Pilot town. Auxiliary craft These vessels were stationed onboard the USS Swiftfire-A: *36 fighters *6 Normandy class Marine dropships *''Dreamtime'', Type-11 shuttlecraft *''Brumby'', Type-11 shuttlecraft *''SC-193'', scoutship *Numerous other shuttlecraft Sickbay The sickbay was the medical centre of the ship. Other then the main sickbay there were a number of separate recovery rooms for patients who needed less attention. This kept the sickbed biobeds as free as possible for more seriously injured patients. The sickbay was equipped with a Emergency Medical Holographic program, a Mark I model, which the staff tried to avoid using because of its grating personality. ( : "The Front", "Change in Command") The CMO's office was also located within sickbay. ( : "Change in Command") Science labs The ship had numerous science labs around the ship. Science Lab 12 was a bio-containment lab that the Dominion cloaking device was kept in for study. The lab was considered one of the most secure on the ship. It had a high level forcefield that could secure the room from the rest of the ship. The forcefield was also designed so that it would stay up despite power fluctuations. ( : "Q, Time and Again") Crew quarters The ship had extensive crew quarters. As with most Starfleet vessels officers ranked above lieutenant were given their own quarters. This also included high ranking marines, pilots and NCOs. Recreational facilities Holodecks The ship has holodecks installed for use by the crew. The Marines stationed on the Swiftfire often use the holodecks for combat training. The Marines would not engage full safety protocols during their training so to make the experience more realistic. ( : "The Big E") Cargo bays The Swiftfire has a number of cargo bays for storage. One cargo bay was converted for into facilities for the Marines. ( : "Deployment") Cargo bay 2 was used to store debris from the shuttle Dreamtime that the crew was led to believe was destroyed. The debris included a nacelle but did not even take up a quarter of the floor space available. ( : "Crossfire") Marine barracks The "barracks" refers to a section of the ship that is primarily concerned with facilities for the Starfleet Marines assigned to the Swiftfire. A large cargo bay near the shuttlebay was converted into a briefing room and lounge for the Marines. The cargo bay was also adjacent to one of the larger armoury on the ship. ( : "Deployment") The junior officer and emergency accommodation quarters around the cargo bay were assigned to the Marines as quarters. Like with the normal crew the Marine's junior personnel share quarters with one or two others. The higher ranking officers however have personal quarters. ( : "Deployment", "Crossfire") Emergency systems Warp core ejection systems The ship is equipped with systems to eject the warp cores from the vessel. A warp core has more then enough energy to destroy a ship if it were to explode as such many ships have systems installed for the quick dumping of the warp core in case of emergencies. The Swiftfire has performed two such operations. The first event was in battle when the warp core was ejected and fired at a Dominion Super carrier using the ship's tractor beam. This basically made the warp core a much larger and more powerful torpedo. The tactic worked and destroyed the Dominion vessel, but also caused substantial damage to the Swiftfire. (Star Trek: Swiftfire: Taskforce 59) The second time the system was used was how it was originally designed. The crew attempted to eject the failing warp cores from the ship but due to systems failure the operation was not successful. (Star Trek: Swiftfire: Q, Time and Again) Saucer separation The Swiftfire-A is capable of saucer separation. The forward saucer can disengage from the catamaran engineering hull and both are capable of operating independently. The both sections were capable of impulse travel as each had a pair of impulse engines. The saucer however is not capable of warp travel since it lacks warp nacelles and a warp core. The Swiftfire used this method during second last iteration of a time casualty loop it was stuck in during 2374. After the failure to eject the ship's overloading warp cores Captain Masters ordered for the ship to be perform the separation. Due to power fluctuations and computer problems the entire crew was not notified of the separation and a sizable percentage were not evacuated to the saucer section. The saucer escaped destruction from the explosion of the warp cores but was soon destroyed by a Dominion Strike cruiser, which caused time to reset to the start of the casualty loop. (Star Trek: Swiftfire: Q, Time and Again) Escape pods The ship is equipped with numerous escape pods. These pods are located on the saucer section with thirty-nine that launch from the top and thirty-two from the bottom of the hull. Auto-destruct system To stop the ship, its technology or any sensitive material falling into hostile hands the ship can be destroyed by the crew using the auto-destruct system. Part of the system includes explosive charges strategically placed around the ship. Crew The Swiftfire had a standard crew of 500 personnel. Due to its construction close to the beginning of the Dominion War and its assignments along the front it did not have any permanently stationed civilians onboard the vessel in the way of non-serving family members or civilians specialists. In the first few months of the Dominion war the Swiftfire had 463 male personnel stationed on board. This meant that the ratio of male to female was two to one. This high ratio was due to all but twelve members of the 150 strong Marine company been males. ( : "The Big E", "Pressure Points") *[[USS Swiftfire (NCC-76125-A) personnel|List of USS Swiftfire-A personnel]] Extra personnel The Swiftfire has around an extra 200 personnel stationed on board. A Starfleet Marine Company under the commander of Colonel David Tiki is stationed on the Swiftfire for extra ship security and offensive and defensive actions. Made up of four roughly 36 member platoons along with six Marine pilots to fly the six Normandy class dropships used to transport the Marines, making up 150 extra personnel. *List of USS Swiftfire-A Marines Starfleet Starfighter Command has assigned 3 squadrons (Oasis, Overcome, Puma) under the command of Wing Commander Maxine Benton to the Swiftfire. Joining the pilots are around a dozen maintenance personnel specialising in fighter craft. *List of USS Swiftfire-A SFC personnel Other Akira-class starships Swiftfire 076125A Swiftfire 076125A Swiftfire 076125A